After professional photographer Alex Dejong lost his sight three years ago, he thought his days of taking and editing photos was over. But the iPhone 3GS's VoiceOver feature, plus a few key apps, has given some of his abilities back.

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Dejong's field of vision isn't totally black; he can distinguish light from dark, and had continued to take photos with the help of an editing assistant. But VoiceOver, which reads back anything displayed on the iPhone, has allowed him to use the (low-end, Dejong admits) camera and certain photo editing apps like Camerabag and TiltShift even without sight.

"With the iPhone and a lot of the photography apps that a lot of people are using, I have my entire workflow, and I can do it in five minutes," Dejong said. "In this way, the iPhone is a remarkable gift. I've had it for three weeks now, and it has really opened up my world, apart from the photography."

It's a pretty interesting story, and Wired's account goes into more depth with other blind photography techniques. I'd never really thought about blind photography before, but for someone like Dejong, for whom photography had been a vital part, I can see how VoiceOver and other new tools would be a godsend. [Wired]